Prior art camcorder battery packs are generally limited to use with a single brand of camcorder, or at most accommodate the base configurations of two brands of camcorders. Since camcorder battery packs can be expensive, the purchaser of a camcorder battery pack must be quite certain as to the manufacturer of the camcorder for which the battery pack is being purchased.
As the use of camcorders has proliferated, the footprint or base configuration of camcorder battery packs have tended to fall within one of four standard configurations. The footprints of the Hitachi, Panasonic, Sony and Sharp "Twin Cam" camcorder battery packs have become the "de facto" standards for the camcorder industry. For example, since Sony manufactures Ricoh camcorders, a Sony camcorder battery pack will fit a Ricoh camcorder. In order to properly function in a camcorder, the camcorder battery pack must have both mechanical and electrical compatibility with the camcorder in which it is used.
As the base configuration of camcorder battery packs generally falls along one of the above-discussed four standard configurations, suppliers of battery packs are still required to produce battery packs having footprints which fit each of the four standard configurations. The production of four separate camcorder battery pack models requires four different manufacturing procedures as well as separate mechanical and electrical components for each of the four models of battery packs. While camcorder battery packs which accommodate two of the four standard base configurations are available, a camcorder battery pack which accommodates the four major standard base configurations has not been known.
In addition to the difficulties of manufacturing four different camcorder battery packs having four separate base configurations, a purchaser of a camcorder battery pack must be aware of the precise base configuration needed in order to select the correct camcorder battery pack. If the purchaser of the camcorder battery pack is not the owner of the camcorder in which the battery pack will be used, (e.g., the battery pack is being purchased as a gift) this can create difficulty in selecting the appropriate battery pack.
Even more importantly, retailers must stock multiple battery pack types resulting in extraordinary inventory and floor space requirements and substantial increases in carrying costs.
The Canon camcorder battery has also emerged as another important battery contact standard. Thus, there are now at least five major camcorder battery contact standards that are in relatively common use. These standard battery formats are for the Sony, the Panasonic, the Hitachi/RCA, the Sharp "Twin Cam" and the Canon camcorders.
Although there are five common camcorder battery standard contact formats there are well over five battery recharger configurations. Rechargers are cheaper and easier to modify or redesign, so manufacturers often slightly redesign their rechargers and batteries to force the consumer to use only batteries produced by that particular camcorder manufacturer. The altered recharger still works with the batteries already produced by the manufacturer (i.e., using one of the five common camcorder battery contact standards). However, batteries which are not manufactured by the manufacturer may not work with the modified or redesigned battery recharger. Thus, a consumer must only buy batteries produced by the manufacturer who produced his charger, or take the risk that batteries produced by other manufacturers may work on his camcorder but not his recharger.